On November 5, 2013, Columbus voters will consider an additional levy of 9.01 mills to fund Columbus City Schools. If approved, approximately 11%, or $8.5 million, would go to charter schools, while the majority of the $76.6 million a year would go to the Columbus City School District.

In the previous blog on the subject, we took an overall look at the issues surrounding the levy. In this one, we address an important story unfolding in the background of the current debate over the levy: the ongoing enrollment scandal.

The upcoming levy vote will take place in the wake of a scandal involving serious problems with enrollment data. Some Columbus City School administrators were caught manipulating enrollment numbers to minimize the impact that students with low standardized test scores and multiple absences had on the district’s state report card score. The targeted students were removed from the rolls long enough to “break a student’s string of ‘continuous enrollment.’” With the string broken, the targeted students no longer qualified as students for the sake of the state report card and their test scores were rendered to be essentially irrelevant. The removal of the targeted students created a false sense of both the enrollment figures in the city, which were already in the midst of a significant decline, and the performance of the schools and the district as a whole.

In 2012, the Education Department and State Auditor Dave Yost began an investigation into the enrollment scandal and confirmed the existence of the practice of un-enrolling and re-enrolling targeted students. The first state report card released subsequent to the investigation showed poor results for the Columbus City School District. In August, the Columbus City School District received an evaluation that has been described as abysmal on a newly implemented state report card. The district received four F grades, three D grades, and two C grades. The district received a D grade for performance index, an F grade for indicators met, an F grade in overall progress, and an F grade for annual measurable objectives.

In addition to the poor performance metrics, recently released attendance information, the first in the period after the revelation of the improper practices, shows a troubling drop in the previously reported attendance rates. The new information shows student absence may be a much larger issue than previously thought.

Despite the recent troubled past of the Columbus City School District, and a continuing investigation, interim Superintendent Dan Good recently instituted a number of policies to prevent future abuses. The policies, which met the approval of State Auditor Yost, add greater specificity to the procedure for withdrawing students, clarify record keeping efforts, and institute “random attendance audits.” 

The education system requires a level of trust between taxpayers and educators. Improper behavior by school officials, as occurred in the Columbus Data Scandal, damages that trust. Without transparency and accountability, fostering that trust is impossible. Without that trust, taxpayers and educators cannot work together to successfully ensure that the school system is helping students achieve proper academic progress.